Issue #1
In Our First Issue:
- Some of the best life advice you’ll ever hear from a young Hunter S. Thompson
- Become an engaging storyteller (Neil deGrasse Tyson is a fraud. Well, kinda)
- Beautiful “Machine-Optimized” designs that look like the natural world
- The definitive guide to the most amazing, unusual, and surprising places around the world
by Hunter S. Thompson, featured in the Farnam Street Blog
This letter from a 22-year-old Hunter S. Thompson – who would become one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century – is simply some of the most engaging and elegant life advice we’ve ever read.
His writing is so entertaining that when you finish, you want to go right back to read it again just to re-visit all the wit and wisdom packed into each sentence. Imagine having this much insight at age 22!
Key Quotes:
- “Let’s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let’s assume that you can’t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN— and here is the essence of all I’ve said— you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.”
- “Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.”
by Julian Shapiro
Are you one of those people who can enthrall friends and family when you tell stories? Yea, we aren’t either 😢. Here’s an entertaining and detailed breakdown of how to become one.
Key Idea: Blow your own mind when you tell stories. Resurface the same emotions that came up when it actually happened.
Bonus Fact: If you’ve ever heard an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, you know he’s an incredibly captivating storyteller. What you probably didn’t know? Almost all the stories and analogies he speaks in public are first written down.
On top of 2-3 great reads each week, we’ll also send a mix of videos, websites, podcasts, tweets, or music you’ll love.
This Week's Recommendations:
This twitter thread by Alexandros Marinos shows fascinating examples of computer-optimized designs in different objects and systems. Scroll through a few and you’ll see, the final products look much different (and a lot more like the natural world) than you’d expect.
Key Quote: “Machines tend to depend on us to define the high-level objectives, but they can explore infinitely more of the solution space than we could hope to. Their results are often much much better than we could ever hope to produce.”
This website claims to have the DEFINITIVE map of the world’s most extraordinary sights. After doing some digging around, we’re taking their word for it. The site has an “exhaustive catalogue with thousands of architectural oddities, natural wonders, catacombs, crypts, and unique collections from across the world’s continents and oceans.”
All the places included are crowdsourced by an extremely active community of world-travelers. Take a quick look and you’ll find much more than just Yelp’s greatest hits. This might be the perfect research tool for your next COVID-rage-induced cross-country road-trip.
Poll Question of the Week:
If I could pick a single personality trait/attribute to turn up to the MAX, it would be:
And that’s a wrap! If you have any comments, suggestions, recommendations, or just general feedback we’d love to hear from you! Email us at brooke@pearlrunner.com and we’ll include our favorite comments in next week’s edition (and maybe in our Instagram feed 🧐). Thanks for reading and have a great week!
